Friday, October 12, 2007

Just a few brief notes on the Major League Baseball play-offs:

With their opening-game win over Arizona in the National League Championship Series, the Colorado Rockies have now won 18 of their last 19 games (which also includes a three-game sweep over Philadelphia in the opening round). A couple of entries down, I conducted an elaborate analysis of the Rockies in the regular season.

A streak-within-a-streak is that Colorado pitcher Jeff Francis improved to 5-0 lifetime at the Diamondbacks' Chase Field. I was pleased to see, via this game article, that Francis appears to have some statistical savvy:

"I really can't explain that," said Francis. "It's just a small sample size of me not being here that long and just having a good run against one particular team."

Over in the American League, the championship series between Cleveland and Boston starts tonight. As pointed out in an ESPNews graphic on television yesterday, Cleveland hit .444 (12-27) in two-out situations with runners in scoring position (RISP) in its opening-round win over the New York Yankees.